Custom As A Source Of Law

A central puzzle in jurisprudence has been the role of custom in law. Custom is simply the practices and usages of distinctive communities. But are such customs legally binding? Can custom be law, even before it is recognized by authoritative legislation or precedent? And, assuming that custom is a source of law, what are its constituent elements? Is proof of a consistent and long-standing practice sufficient, or must there be an extra ingredient - that the usage is pursued out of a sense of legal obligation, or, at least, that the custom is reasonable and efficacious? And, most tantalizing of all, is custom a source of law that we should embrace in modern, sophisticated legal systems, or is the notion of law from below outdated, or even dangerous, today? This volume answers these questions through a rigorous multidisciplinary, historical, and comparative approach, offering a fresh perspective on custom's enduring place in both domestic and international law.

A central puzzle in jurisprudence has been the role of custom in law. Custom is simply the practices and usages of distinctive communities. But are such customs legally binding? Can custom be law, even before it is recognized by authoritative legislation or precedent? And, assuming that custom is a source of law, what are its constituent elements? Is proof of a consistent and long-standing practice sufficient, or must there be an extra ingredient - that the usage is pursued out of a sense of legal obligation, or, at least, that the custom is reasonable and efficacious? And, most tantalizing of all, is custom a source of law that we should embrace in modern, sophisticated legal systems, or is the notion of law from below outdated, or even dangerous, today? This volume answers these questions through a rigorous multidisciplinary, historical, and comparative approach, offering a fresh perspective on custom's enduring place in both domestic and international law.

John M. Zane recommends this work, of which he comments "...the facts and ideas that are called legal can be studied with advantage from the same viewpoint as other branches of social phenomena, such as language, religion, folklore, or customs, that are not legal... The first chapter is called Methods of Jurisprudence, showing the manner in which law develops, sometimes in one way, sometimes in another...The next chapter deals with the particular factors of custom and legislation. It examines, without dogmatizing, the difference between the gradual acceptance of law by means of custom and the conscious, purposeful statement of a law by the law-making power. The next chapter takes a particular instance of the family organization as a fertile source of law in different stages. Finally the last chapter, entitled The Right of Appropriation, carries the discussion into the origins of property and the clashing interests of the individual in his freedom to acquire and contract as against the interests of the social organization. It is all in the easy method of a wise man talking, as if lecturing, upon topics, not seeking to exhaust, but to suggest. The book is stimulating. It will bear reading and rereading. Like all good books, it suggests more than it says..." John M. Zane, Yale Law Journal 35:1026-1027.

John Chipman Gray (1839-1915) spent the greater part of his professional life as a professor at Harvard Law School where he taught property, trusts and future interests. The Nature and Sources of the Law was first published in 1909. The book is divided into two parts which respectively look at 'Nature' and 'Sources'.In Part I, Gray warns that the study of jurisprudence, in isolation, could lead to dogmatism. Rather he advocates the structure offered by common law with its reliance on flexible interpretations of statutes, the use of all relevant cultural inputs and a highly adaptable approach to the resolution of disputes.Gray, in Part II, turns his attention to sources of the law, and begins with statutes. Here he asserts that judges are the ones who actually turn into law, going against the conventional scholarship that judges merely interprets statutes. He also extensively examines the influence of tradition and the common law.

Customary International Humanitarian Law, Volume I: Rules is a comprehensive analysis of the customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts. In the absence of ratifications of important treaties in this area, this is clearly a publication of major importance, carried out at the express request of the international community. In so doing, this study identifies the common core of international humanitarian law binding on all parties to all armed conflicts. Comment Don:RWI.

This book attempts to bring greater theoretical clarity to the often murky topic of custom by showing that custom must be analysed into two more logically basic concepts: convention and habit. Customs are conventional habits and habitual conventions. Once we have a clearer understanding of custom we can better grasp the many roles that custom plays in a legal system.

A comprehensive and wide-ranging account of the interrelationship between law and literature in Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Tudor England.

This book sets out to articulate a comprehensive theory of customary international law that can effectively resolve the conceptual and practical enigmas surrounding it. It takes a multidisciplinary approach and draws insights from international law, legal theory, political science, and game theory. It is anchored in a sophisticated ethical framework and explores the interrelationships between customary international law and ethics.